Forest Lawn fire scorches two homes

Two homes in southeast Calgary have been scorched following an early morning fire Wednesday.

Jasmine Sablay said she was woken up around 4 a.m. to what she thought was someone knocking on her door.

“I thought there was somebody banging on my door but it was actually a fire,” she said.

“The fire just spread so quickly to my house.”

Sablay, who has a four-year-old daughter, has lived in her Forest Lawn home on 41 Street SE for the last 10 years.

She said investigators have told her they believe the fire started in between the two houses.

The Calgary mother said the neighbouring house has been problematic for some time.

“This house is actually a drug house, last year there was a fire inside the house so the city shut it down because they were investigating something to do with drugs,” Sablay explained.

“The house has been closed for about a year but people live on the outside, they squat outside with tents and we actually saw people living here a few weeks ago but we didn’t think anything of it and then the fire started.”

She credits the calm nature of the 911 operator for guiding her and her young daughter to safety.

“In the moment, I froze. Luckily I was on the phone with someone and she told me exactly what to do,” said Sablay.

“I was in so much shock, I’m just glad that I got out.”

For the time being, she says the pair will likely have to relocate to her parents’ house in the southwest.

Tommy Nguyen lives with his family on the block and says being half-asleep at the time left him slightly confused.

“It was about 3:50 in the morning and my alarm went off for me to go to work and at that moment I heard my dad just yelling at us all to get out of the house, there’s a fire,” he said.

“Almost immediately we knew it was that house on the corner. This isn’t the first time, I think this is the second time that house has caught fire, but this time it jumped over.”

Luckily, every member of the family was able to get out safely, including the family dog.

“There’s just a lot of bad luck associated with that house,” said Nguyen.

Investigators continue to look into the cause of the fire.